The CSM

The CSM

What is the CSM?

The Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) for relations with the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is the largest international space of civil society organisations (CSOs) working to eradicate food insecurity and malnutrition.

The CSM was founded in 2010, as an essential and autonomous part of the reformed CFS. The purpose of the CSM is to facilitate civil society participation and articulation into the policy processes of the CFS.

The CSM is an open and inclusive space and hence does not have formal members, but participating organizations. Every organization that belongs to civil society and works on food security and nutrition can join and participate. During the past years, several hundred national, regional or global organizations have participated in the CSM.

All participating organizations in the CSM belong to one of the following 11 constituencies: smallholder farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolks, indigenous peoples, agricultural and food workers, landless, women, youth, consumers, urban food insecure and NGOs.

The CSM…

…gives priority to the organizations and movements of the people most affected by food insecurity and malnutrition, recognizing that they are the organizations of the rights-holders that are the subjects of their own development and also the most important contributors to food security and nutrition worldwide.

…respects pluralism, autonomy, diversity and self-organisation and tries to ensure a balance of constituencies, gender, and regions.

…as a space does not represent the organizations that participate in it. They represent themselves and articulate positions together with others in the CSM. The participating organizations, particularly those who organize small-scale food producers and consumers, have more than 300 millions affiliated members from all continents.

Participation of civil society organizations is articulated through global and sub-regional units. The global units (constituencies) bring together the global and continental organizations and networks of each sector, while the sub-regional units bring together civil society organizations that have work on food security in the specific sub-region, from all constituencies. This articulation aims to ensure inclusiveness and active involvement of all national, regional and global levels.

The CSM 17 sub-regions are the following: North America, Central America and Caribbean, Andean Region, Southern Cone, West Europe, East Europe, North Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, South Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Australasia and Pacific

CSM Structure

The Coordination Committee

The Coordination Committee (CC) is the governing body of the CSM; this means that all relevant political decisions within the CSM, on internal and external issues, are taken by the CC by consensus, if possible, and by vote if a consensus is not possible, reporting the divergent view. The Members of the CSM Coordination Committee are elected by the 11 constituencies and 17 sub-regions (5 sub-regions in Africa, 4 sub-regions in the Americas, 6 sub-regions in Asia and 2 sub-regions in Europe). Gender and geographic balance within its composition is always ensured.

The CC consists of 41 members from the 11 constituencies and 17 sub-regions.

The role of CC members is to facilitate the work of CSOs within their constituencies and sub-regional groups.

The CC is responsible for ensuring that the functions of the CSM are carried out effectively as possible and according to the organizing principles. Ensuring a two-way communication process.

The CC perform this role by sharing information, facilitating dialogue and consultations, supporting analysis and advocacy at national and regional level.

The Coordination Committee in the period 2015-2017 was composed by 20 women and 19 men. To see its composition please click on CC Members 2015-2017.

The Coordination Committee in the period 2013-2015 was composed by 20 women and 18 men. To see its composition as October 2014 please click on CC List October 2014.

The Policy Working Groups

The Policy Working Groups (WG) are a fundamental part of the CSM work. The Working Group is the space where political inputs to CFS Processes are articulated, debated, constructed, analyzed and confronted. The aim, starting from the pluralities of expertise, knowledge and point of views, is to build a civil society common position to be brought to CFS inter-sessional and plenary decision-making and policy debate activities. Working Groups are established in relation to the CFS processes approved in the biannual Multi-Year Programme of Work. Working Groups are open to all participating organizations of the CSM and ideally comprise organizations from all global constituencies and sub-regions. Each of the WG is led by one or two coordinators who are members of the CC and is usually supported by technical facilitators and resource persons.

To join one or more CSM Working Groups please write to the CSM Secretariat at the following email address: cso4cfs@gmail.com

Please visit the dedicated page for each Working Group to discover more on CSM Positions and related CFS Processes!

The Advisory Group

The CSM Advisory Group (AG) is elected by and within the Coordination Committee every two years. The CSM has 4 seats within the CFS Advisory Group. The CSM appoints 8 members of the CSM AG who then attend CFS AG meetings on a rotational basis. As its name suggests, the CSM Advisory Group advises both the CFS Bureau on its policy decision making processes by consolidating, facilitating and sharing the CSOs common positions on CFS policy issues, and the CSM CC by informing its policy debate, being the direct link with the CFS Bureau and Advisory Group during the inter-sessional period. The CSM Advisory Group meets for a face-to-face meeting prior to each Joint CFS AG/Bureau Meeting, in order to articulate CSM common contributions on each topic of the CFS AG/Bureau meeting agenda.

The CSM Coordination Committee elected the following 10 persons for the period October 2017-October 2019, to serve to the CFS AG on a rotational basis:

The CSM Advisory Group members for the period October 2017- October 2019 are:

The Finance Working Group

The Coordination Committee is ultimately responsible for overseeing the financial and administrative work of the CSM on behalf of all CSM members. However, recognising the time constraints that they face in overseeing the work on a routine basis, the CC decided to establish a Finance and Administration sub-working group of the Coordination Committee. The CSM Finance Working Group (FWG) is elected together with the Coordination Committee and the Advisory Group every two years.

The Finance Working Group for the period 2015-2017* is composed by:

Thierry Kesteloot – Coordination Committee Member

Gabriela Cruz – Coordination Committee Member

Naseegh Jaffer – Advisory Group Member

Adwoa Sakyi – Advisory Group Member

* A new Finance Working Group for the biennium 2018-2019 will be appointed in the next meeting of the Coordination Committee in 2018.

The Secretariat

The CSM Secretariat guarantees CSM daily functioning. It offers a technical support to the work of the Coordination Committee, Advisory Group and Working Groups by facilitating the communication flow, ensuring the effective coordination of all CSM bodies and respecting of CSM organizing principles and internal functioning guidelines and by administrating the financial resources and logistics arrangements necessary. A Coordinator, a Financial/ Administrative Officer and a Programme/Communication Officer compose the Secretariat. The office is based in Rome and is hosted within FAO Headquarters. The Secretariat reports directly to the Coordination Committee. A professional and long-term collaborating team of interpreters and translators supports the daily work of the Secretariat, by enabling the translation of all CFS documents and CSM messages and the interpretation of all meetings in Spanish, French and English.

The CSM Forum

Each year the CSM holds its Annual Forum prior to the CFS Plenary Session and it is open to all interested civil society participants of the CSM. This two-days forum is a fundamental moment and space for the CSM. At the Forum, CSOs are able to debate, consolidate, articulate and finalise their positions that will be shared and brought to the CFS Plenary Session. Prior to the Annual Forum the CSM CC holds its annual meeting. The Forum is as well a space for accountability, where CC members report to all participating CSOs about their work, performance and activities. Finally the CSM forum is the space to assess the past processes, to consolidate the common positions for the present and to identify the key challenges and steps forward for the future.

Internal Guidelines and ToRs

This Section on CSM Guidelines includes a number of documents that orient the internal proceedings of the CSM. They were agreed by consensus in the CSM Coordination Committee, if not otherwise indicated. In case of a vote in the CSM Coordination Committee, the document as approved by the majority decision is published here, but also the divergent position of the minority is documented, if this was requested. If the document is introduced as “draft”, it has not been adopted by the CSM CC yet.

Accountability

Just as civil society promote accountability from government donors, institutions and the private sector, we too are committed within the Civil Society Mechanism to ensure accountability to CSOs worldwide and to our donor partners. We strive to maintain the highest level of transparency and inclusiveness in the CSM’s decision making processes as well as in the management of funds. In saying so, you can find the CSM’s yearly programme of work and our Annual Report in the below.

The CSM engaged in a process of reflection and evaluation with its CC members from March to July 2014. You can find here the Evaluation Report of the CSM produced by Patrick Mulvany and Christina Schiavoni.

For more information on internal decision-making procedures, please refer to our “Internal Guidelines and ToRs” Section in this same page.

Finance

Since the constitution of its first Coordination Committee in May 2011 the CSM was financed mainly by governments and international institutions active into the CFS. More than 80% of the resources provided to the CSM from 2011 to 2015 where given by the following donors: the EU, the Swiss development Cooperation Agency, Brazil, Norway, Spain, Germany, France, Italy. FAO and IFAD also supported the CSM activities with smaller contributions and in kind support, by hosting CSM CC meetings, CSM Fora and in general CSM preparatory meetings to CFS events.

Finally Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and NGO active into the CSM also contributed importantly to the CSM financing not only providing almost the 20% of its financial resources during the period 2011-2015 but also providing in-kind contributions and directly covering the costs of the participation and active engagement of its own members to the Annual CSM Fora and CFS meetings.

Consult a more detailed overview of the CSM financial contributions during the period: